It is important to remove contaminants from raw and/or waste waters before discharge of such waters, because contaminants such as those found in sewage waters, various industrial waste waters, storm sewer waters and the like, have a destructive effect on the environment. Existing processes for removing such contaminants from waste waters entail breaking down the diodegradable contaminants by the action of active micro-organisms and removing other contaminants by physical and/or chemical precipitation techniques. With such processes, several different process steps are usually carried out in separate stages of a treatment system requiring relatively expensive equipment and the use of substantial areas of land. This type of treatment is not readily scaled down for use in treating small volumes of raw or waste waters at a site of limited size.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for removing contaminants from contaminated waters with a minimum of process steps carried out in the apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus wherein the waste treatment process removes various organic suspended solids, nitrogen containing compounds, and phsophorous containing compounds from the waste waters by co-acting biological and chemical reactions.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for purifying contaminated waters, which is capable of unattended operation and readily lends itself to use in large municipal waste water treatment systems, apartment size waste water treatment systems, single family dwelling waste water treatment systems, waste treatment systems on boats, ships, recreational vehicles and the like, in shopping centres, airports, recreational areas, such as camps, waste treatment systems in food processing industries, fish hatcheries, pulp and paper industries, coke processing stages of steel mills, paint industry, and in any other type of industry, domestic area or raw water purification wherein partially or wholly biodegradable contaminants and non-biodegradable contaminants are to be removed.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for purifying waste water where compared to existing systems the waste water may be processed in a more efficient manner to thereby reduce the physical size of the treatment system.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a waste treatment apparatus whereby waste waters are efficiently contacted with highly concentrated activated sludge containing the mixed active microbial population for digesting the contaminants.
A further object of the invention is to provide waste treatment system apparatus which is readily adapted to miniaturization for use in locations of limited size; such as single family dwellings, boats, recreational vehicles and the like.